Zoom & Re-Zoom

This game is based on the intriguing, wordless, picture books "Zoom" and "Re-Zoom" by Istvan Banyai
which consist of 30 sequential "pictures
within pictures". The Zoom narrative moves from a rooster to
a ship to a city street to a desert island and outer space. Zoom has been published in 18 countries.
The Re-Zoom narrative moves from an Egyptian hieroglyphic to a film set
to an elephant ride to a billboard to a train.

To create the game from the book, separate the picture pages of the
book into one page sheets and laminate or place in clear plastic sleeves
to protect them and prolong usage.

Hand out one picture per person (make sure a continuous sequence is
used).

Explain that participants may only look at their own
pictures and must keep their pictures hidden from others.

Encourage participants to study their picture, since it contains
important information to help solve a problem.

The challenge is for the group to sequence the pictures in the correct order
without looking at one another's pictures.

Participants will generally mill around talking to others to see
whether their pictures have anything in common. Sometimes leadership efforts
will emerge to try to understand the overall story.

When the group believes they have all the pictures in order (usually
after ~15 minutes), the pictures can be turned over for
everyone to see.

Facilitator's Notes

Works with any age group, including corporate groups.

Can be done indoors or outdoors.

Once the challenge is finished, allow everyone to see the pictures
and encourage participants to sort out any mistakes in the order (can be
done on a table or the floor), then let everyone walk around view the
pictures in sequence so they understand the full story.

Variations

Use as a novel icebreaker by handing
each participant a picture on arrival. When everyone has
arrived, explain that each person is holding part of a story and that the
group task is to find out what the story is by putting their pictures in
sequence.

Use a time limit to increase difficulty and enhance focus on
teamwork.

Team performance can be measured (e.g., for a competition) by
counting how many pictures are out of sequence.

If there are a few more people than cards, then pair people up.

For larger groups, if there is enough people then have 2 or more groups
running the activity at the same time or use a sequence of cards to suit
the group size.

For smaller groups, try disallowing talking. This increases the
difficulty and creates the need for expressive sign language. In
general, allow large groups to talk because there is enough complexity
sorting out all the pictures.

Another way to increase complexity with small groups is to give each
person more than one picture.

To reduce complexity for young groups (e.g., pre-school), allow a
small group to look through all pictures and organize the story from
beginning to end.

Processing Ideas

There is usually much potential for debriefing and discussion.

Why was it hard to get the story together?
(everyone had a piece, but no-one
had the big picture)

What type of communication was used in attempting to solve the
problem?

What communication methods might have worked better? e.g., Imagine if, at the outset, the group had taken the time to let each person
describe his/her picture to the rest of the group. What would have
happened then? Would the solution have been found faster? What
prevented such strategies from being considered?

Did you try to "second position" (i.e., see one's communications from
the perspective of others)?

What kind of leadership was used to tackle the problem?

Who were the leaders? Why?

What
style of leadership might have worked best?

If you were to tackle a similar activity again, what do you think this
group could do differently?

What real life activities are similar to this activity?

References

Banyai, I. (1995).Zoom
New York: Viking / Penguin.

Banyai, I. (1998). Re-Zoom
New York: Viking / Penguin.

Equipment

Zoom
and/or
Re-Zoom
books by Istvan Banyai. (This book is shipped
intact. To create the game, the pages of the book need to be separated into one
page sheets, trimmed, and then can be laminated or placed in clear plastic sleeves)

Summary

A group tries to create a unified story from a set of sequential pictures.
The pictures are randomly ordered and handed out. Each person has
a picture but cannot show it to others. Requires patience,
communication, and perspective taking in
order to recreate the story's sequence.